


Mind Over Matter

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-23 19:40:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7477299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Keith frowned. 'Falling in love isn't really a miracle, though, it happens all the time.'</p><p>'It's just hormones syncing, practically pure biology," Pidge agreed.</p><p>'Yeah, but isn't it a miracle anyway, though?' Hunk said with a faraway look in his eyes. 'Hormones syncing is one thing, but loving someone? Staying together, understanding each other, being happy – I mean, what are the chances?'</p><p>Lance looked down at his hands and said nothing."</p><p>A Soulmate AU, very loosely.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mind Over Matter

Lance doesn’t believe in fate, or destiny, or whatever. He thinks he could make himself if he wanted to, but he preferred to leave the future in the hands of the people who actually had to deal with it, rather than some unknown author and their prewritten stories. 

 

So he has to believe the moment he met Keith was not a crossing of inauspicious stars, but a coincidence. A rare, nearly impossible, one-in-seven-billion-squared kind of coincidence. 

 

And really, Lance does believe it. Because the alternative would be to believe the universe really fucking hated him, and that isn’t something he wants to consider now that he’s literally its only hope. Well, one fifth of its only hope.

 

Of course, the day The Coincidence happened, Lance had no idea what was waiting for him, and Keith, and countless galaxies across the cosmos. He just knew he wanted to meet the garrison’s new pilot, the boy with navy blue eyes and a determined expression that could set the world on fire.

 

And a fucking  _ mullet _ , obviously. A weird, baffling mullet that nobody seemed to question, for some reason.

 

Lance was so easy around people he didn’t think twice about approaching the standoffish new kid with mysterious origins, just bounded up to him like a golden retriever and stuck out his hand.

 

“Hey, Keith, right? I’m Lance. Nice to meet you.” 

 

Keith turned and looked at him as if he was interrupting something, fixing his eyes on Lance with surprise and confusion. Lance was suddenly nervous under his gaze. Somehow, it felt more piercing than Keith probably intended.

 

“Oh. Lance? I’ve…heard of you.” Keith paused. “Why are you talking to me?”

 

Lance blinked, then laughed uncomfortably. “Um. because I wanted to?”

 

Keith furrowed his eyebrows. “Yeah, but you’re...you know, you.”

 

“Last time I checked, that’s true. Still don’t see what that has to do with anything.”

 

They stood like that for a while: Lance’s hand awkwardly extended, Keith staring at him like he was missing some obvious cue to leave. 

 

Lance cleared his throat. “Are you going to shake my hand or what?” he asked, trying and failing to sound joking instead of nervous.

 

Keith narrowed his eyes. “Is this some sort of practical joke?”

 

“Dude, just shake my hand,” Lance said exasperatedly. “Worst case scenario you just get shocked or something, right? You seem like a guy willing to take risks.”

 

“Um. Fine, okay,” Keith said with a tone that implied he still didn’t understand what Lance wanted out of him. 

 

Despite his wariness, though, Keith reached out and look Lance’s hand.

 

The first thing Lance felt was the crackle of electricity that shot through his fingertips. It was like being electrocuted, only somehow it didn’t make him want to let go. In fact, he felt like he could have stood there forever, just holding Keith’s hand in the middle of a half-empty hallway.

 

However, the second thing Lance noticed made him drop Keith’s hand immediately.

 

_ So I guess this is the annoying cargo pilot they were talking about. I have to say, he’s really not so – _

 

Lance drew back from Keith with inhuman speed. 

 

“Annoying?  _ Cargo pilot?  _ Who’s ‘they’?” Lance blurted out angrily. 

 

“What are you talking about? I didn’t say any of that!” Keith answered, alarmed. 

 

But Lance spoke over him, raising his voice enough to warrant a strange look from a passerby. “I know you clearly don’t talk to people much, but you don’t just say something like that to someone you just met, you know, I mean, what’s your problem –”

 

“I didn’t say anything,” Keith hissed, grabbing Lance by the shoulders. 

 

_ At least, I don’t think I did, unless I muttered it under my breath by accident. Do I do that? I mean, if I do, it’s not like there’s usually someone around to hear. I don’t exactly have a horde of friends surrounding me– _

 

Lance shoved Keith away, stumbling backwards in the process. A realization slowly dawned on him. 

 

“I – I just read your – I’ve got to go,” he said breathlessly, before taking off towards his dorm, leaving behind a puzzled Keith even more confused than before.

 

*

 

As soon as Lance got back to his room, he flopped back on his bed and took a long, hard look at the ceiling, trying to process the events of the last few minutes. 

 

He had just read Keith’s mind, and heard him thinking about people who called Lance an ‘annoying cargo pilot’, which shouldn’t even matter to him anymore because  _ he had just read Keith’s mind _ , but which somehow made the people matter even more because of it–

 

He remembered what his great-aunt always said about organized thinking, focusing on one thing at a time, but his mind was swarming with thoughts, unable to land on anything substantial.

 

Could he suddenly read people’s minds? And if so, how? And why?

 

“Lance!” Pidge burst into their room and dropped a stack of books and circuit boards on his bed. “Hey! Are you okay? You look like you’re thinking really hard about something.”

 

Lance grinned. Just having Pidge around made him feel a little less frazzled. “And why does that make you think I’m not okay? Doesn’t everyone get an existential crisis once in awhile?”

 

Pidge plopped down by Lance’s side and nudged him with his foot. “Not you. The fact that you’re thinking at all is deeply worrying. Your brain might explode.”

 

“Well, at least I’d have the satisfaction of knowing you’d be the one who has to clean it off the walls.”

 

“Given the size of your brain, it would only take a few minutes.” Pidge shot back, smiling. He tilted his head thoughtfully. “You know, I could even store some of your brain matter to study. I’ve never seen a human brain before and I think it would be fascinating to –”

 

Lance groaned. “Please don’t fantasize about my brain exploding.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, fine,” Pidge grumbled. “So then enough with the gross brain talk. What was bothering you again? Causing your mind-shattering existential crisis?”

 

Lance sighed.  _ Oh, yeah. That. _

 

“Hey, Pidge?” Lance ventured hesitantly, sitting up and crossing his legs. “Can you...hold my hand or something?”

 

Pidge furrowed his eyebrows. “Um, what for, exactly? Will it help you feel better?”

 

“I guess? It’s sort of for science, in a way.”

 

“Oh! You’re finally taking an interest in science?” Pidge grabbed Lance’s hand abruptly. “Well, yeah, of course I can.”

 

Closing his eyes, Lance listened carefully for Pidge’s voice. He concentrated on the electric feeling he got with Keith, strained to hear a whisper or a hushed tone, but – there was nothing. No thoughts, no lightning. Not even an echo or a static shock. 

 

Lance opened his eyes, completely baffled, and stared at Pidge. He was waiting eagerly to learn the results of Lance’s ‘experiment’. 

 

“So?” Pidge asked after a few seconds. “Did you get the information you needed?”

 

Lance let go of Pidge’s hand reluctantly. “Yeah, I think so.”

 

“Trick question!” Pidge exclaimed. “You’re never just done with a sample size of one. It even rhymes.”

 

“What rhymes?” Hunk stepped into the room. 

 

“Hey,” Pidge waved him over. “Hunk, you’re just in time, come find out what rhymes!”

 

Hunk looked from Lance to Pidge to Lance again. “You got him talking about science, didn’t you? He’s doing that rhyming thing.” 

 

Pidge rolled his eyes. “Lance here is conducting an experiment that involves human contact. He needs people to hold hands with him.”

 

“Oh, sure. I can totally help with that, my friend,” Hunk said cheerily. He thrust his hand towards Lance, who took it cautiously.

 

Lance waited for something to happen, but it was the same as before: nothing. He dropped Hunk’s hand in disappointment.

 

“Sorry buddy, it’s not working.” Lance turned to Pidge. “I don’t know the rhymes about sample sizes of two, but I think I’ve got what I need. It only works with...certain situations.”

 

“Well, I’m glad we could help,” Hunk shrugged pleasantly. “What were you trying to do anyway?”

 

“It doesn’t matter, it’s not important anymore,” Lance replied, perhaps more quickly than he should have. He cleared his throat. “I’ve learned my lesson, it turns out science is incredibly boring and dabbling with it was a huge mistake.”

 

Pidge bristled indignantly, taking Lance’s bait without hesitation. “I’ll have you know science has given us everything from medicine, to string theory, to the space exploration program we’re enrolled in  _ at this very moment– _ ”

 

“Don’t forget the electromagnetic wave equation, and freeze dried ice cream!” Hunk cut in.

 

Lance smiled as Pidge and Hunk launched into a comprehensive list of their favorite scientific achievements, ranging from pressurized cooling systems to laser pointers. He really loved his friends. He really loved that he even had friends. 

 

Even so, a little after “computational fluid dynamics”, Lance’s mind eventually drifted back to Keith and the deranged situation he had stumbled into. Apparently, he could read Keith’s mind through contact, but no one else’s. The world’s weirdest and most specific superpower, great. Now Lance knew what was happening, which was good. But he still didn’t know  _ why _ it was happening. Why did he seem to have some special bond with  _ Keith  _ of all people? Keith, the mulleted loner who thought he was a nuisance. 

 

Speaking of which.

 

“Hey, guys,” Lance interrupted, stopping Hunk in the middle of a list of different types of magnets. “I know I’m the most likable and amazing pilot the garrison has ever seen, but do people think I’m annoying?”

 

Pidge laughed. “Probably. I sure do. What about you, Hunk?”

 

Hunk swatted Lance playfully. “I agree, I can’t stand to be around this guy.”

 

Lance frowned. “No, guys, seriously though.” 

 

Hunk and Pidge instantly sobered up and exchanged a look. Lance could easily guess what they were thinking: he was never serious about anything.

 

Pidge spoke up first. “I’m not socially in-tune enough to know what other say about you, or me for that matter. I’m busy with...other things. But I can promise you, at least most of the time, that I don’t think you’re annoying.”

 

“Nor do I,” Hunk piped up. “You totally are the most likable and amazing pilot the garrison has ever seen.”

 

Lance narrowed his eyes. “You know what they’re saying, don’t you?” 

 

Hunk winced. “I mean, yes. Sort of.”

 

“Is it really that bad?”

 

Instantly, he grimaced at the sound of his voice. He was going for carefree and offhanded, but he sounded just a shade too vulnerable to be casual.

 

Hunk seemed surprised at Lance, too. “Why does it matter? It’s just people saying the stuff people say. They’ll like you or they won’t.”

 

Lance knew just from the simple way Hunk said it that he genuinely believed it, that he wasn’t just saying it to make him feel better. Lance didn’t know whether to be pleased or dismayed that he seemed to have befriended the only two teenagers in the world who didn’t care at all about what other people thought. 

 

He wished he could join them on their island of nonchalance, but despite his efforts, he couldn’t. Other people were  _ other people _ , of course what they thought mattered. If only he could read  _ their _ minds all the time. 

 

He forced a laugh and threw an arm around Hunk. “Nothing, my friend, I’ve just got my eye on this smoking hot girl, and I don’t want her getting the wrong idea about me. She’s amazing, let me tell you all about her.”

 

Hunk and Pidge groaned and ignored Lance as he rambled on about a fictional girl with “crazy raven black hair, guys, and a pair of eyes that are just, just insane”.

 

*

 

Once he had turned the situation over in his head for the thousandth time, Lance started thinking about the strange lightning side effect of reading Keith's mind. He decided it was the least weird and least important part of the whole thing.

  
“I need to have at least  _ some _ sense of proportion,” he muttered to himself.

**Author's Note:**

> I say Vol, you say Tron! Vol...


End file.
